May 13, 2024 Newsletter

XXXIV

Spring has sprung – I think.

ANDREW DOLPH MAY 13

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NEWS – It’s all local

What happened in the industry this month?

I’m a little late on posting this month, my apologies. Life caught up with me.

#ONPA MATTERS

It’s all about us.

1/ This year’s convention, featuring Pittsburgh-based photographer Terry Clarke, was a great success. Check our the recap by Bob DeMay with lot’s of pictures, here. Also, please give a listen to a special three-part podcast from Lori King, resident podcaster and host of The Buckeye Visualist, here.

2/ Please join me in welcoming Kristin Bauer and Lisa Scalfaro to the Board of Trustees! We now have a full Board with Kristin coming to us from the Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria, fulfilling the role of treasurer, and Lisa coming to us from the Record-Courier and ABJ, fulfilling the role of secretary. Swearing in took place at the convention on April 13th. Thanks to Kristin and Kim for doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes work in updating money related matters!

I personally look forward to Kristin and Lis’a’s enthusiasm and professionalism as ONPA seeks to continue its mission of support for working professionals and students alike.

3/ As always, please consider participating in the monthly and year-end contests! The more people participate, the better our contests are.

#OTHER INDUSTRY MATTERS – It seems more dire than ever

Where to begin? Where to end?

1/ If you are interested in scholarly papers about contemporary trends in journalism – specifically focusing on the emergent trend of Ai in newsrooms, boy do I have one for you. It may be tl;dr for some, and that’s okay.

Generative Visual AI in News Organizations: Challenges, Opportunities, Perceptions, and Policies, by T. J. Thomson, Ryan J. Thomas & Phoebe Matich, published online, April 8, 2024

2/ Have the bots won? From PetaPixel – Two-Thirds of the Limited Edition [Fuji] X100VI Sales in the U.S. Were Fraudulent

3/ 60 Minutes – while it originally aired in 2013, this segment has been re-packaged for YouTube, and includes current reporting:

4/ PetaPixel – The Biggest Digital Camera Ever Made: 6,600 Pounds and 3,200 Megapixels

“The LSST will be used to explore the sky en masse, studying celestial bodies and their relationship with each other and how they are distributed. It will also attempt to tackle the mysteries of dark matter and how it is distributed throughout the universe. Expect the detection of asteroids, their location, and their movement over time.

Over the course of the 10-year survey, the LSST will spend time capturing each part of the southern sky more than 800 times which will allow scientists and astronomers to create a fully dynamic movie of the universe. Essentially, the LSST will be capturing a 10-year timelapse and all that data will be available to the scientific community to further the knowledge of the universe.”

5/ LATimes – Carolyn Cole on a review of the film, Civil War (free article)

“As horrible as the premise of a current day civil war may be, I thought many of the themes touched on in the movie were realistic, like the interplay between a veteran and novice photographer, and the group of journalists as they traveled together. Although the scenarios they faced were extreme, they were plausible. Real images come to mind like that of the American civilian contractors hung from a bridge in Fallujah, Iraq, or the U.S. soldier dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia. I’ve photographed riots, firefights, mass graves and the aftermath of deadly bombings. Like all movies, the intensity of each scene is exaggerated, but the scenarios are possible.”

6/ Poynter – a cause and effect:

• Gannett hits pause button on its promise to restaff its smallest papers
  Outlets with few or no staff members likely to stay that way for a while
• Opinion | Gannett fired an editor for talking to me
  Sarah Leach spoke to Poynter in an attempt to staff up her team. She may have been successful, even if she won’t be at Gannett to see it through.

7/ The Drone Girl – IF CONGRESS BANS DJI DRONES, HERE’S WHAT THAT COULD DO TO HOBBY DRONE PILOTS

#PEOPLE

Movement, Highlights & More

As always, if you have news about people for inclusion in this publication, please reach out.

1/ Awards and accolades are not for everyone, but they can matter by bolstering credibility and helping to build trust within the communities we so carefully work to cover, as well as bringing to light for editors the hard work we do.

• Recently, ONPA VP Sam Greene and Cincinatti Enquirer staff photographer Kareem Elgazzar were recently honored by the University of Cincinnati journalism department during an annual Hall of Fame award ceremony that includes inductions of new HOF members, a Young Alumni Award for mid career professional, and scholarship awards for current students, said Sam.Kareem and Sam, along with Ariel Cheung and German Lopez, were honored with the Young Alumni Award.Congratulations!

• • The Tuscarawas County Commissioners requested my presence to talk about the recent ONPA Small Market Photographer of the Win award, what it means to me, and some of the work that went into making and selecting winning photographs.

2/ Michael Indriolo reached out to me with news that he’s soon returning to Ohio to work at SignalCleveland. Congratulations Mikey!

From FlintBeat, where he is wrapping up his employment: “Michael is Flint Beat’s multimedia journalist. He joined the team as a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Before moving to Flint, Michael lived and worked throughout Northeast Ohio, reporting for The Land, a Cleveland-based nonprofit newsroom, and The Portager, a hyperlocal news website serving Portage County, Ohio. Get in touch with him at mindriolo@flintbeat.com or @mikeyindr on Instagram.”

You can check out his archive of sensitive, powerful storytelling for the news organization, here.

Mikey holds two bachelor’s degrees (Summa Cum Laude) from Kent State University: Journalism | Digital Media Production (2020), according to his CV.

3/ It’s been 40 years in photojournalism for Yunghi Kim, and she is sharing photos and stories on her Instagram feed.

4/ Cincinnati-based freelancer Aaron Doster recently had a nice portrait taken of him. Note the technique – actual tintypes!

5/ Kassi Filkins at SignalAkron recently announced that she and her husband Connor are expecting. Congratulations!

6/ Sam Greene is still on paternal leave.

#RESOURCES and #INSPIRATIONS

Helpful things and eye-catchers

1/ Great words of wisdom from Wonderful Machine’s IG feed, wonderful_at_work on the necessity to write clearly and concisely for the way in which we show our work promotionally.

“It would be nice if your photos could do all the talking, but occasionally, you need to use words. Your photographer bio complements your portfolio, and it’ll have to be adjusted to suit the parameters of different platforms.

Swipe through the slides as we look through the various avenues.

And to read the full article, head to wonderfulmachine.com/read/intel
– Search for “Expert Advice: Writing a Photographer Bio”
– Or find the article link in our Expert Advice story highlight.”

2/ “Does the image need to move to move you?” A question asked and answered by Patrick Farrell after 40 years of photojournalism experience.

3/ All things eclipse-related – I promise to stop, soon.

• • From Reading the Pictures – Notes on that Transcendent Border Eclipse Photo
    The image of the Border Patrol agent and the migrant detainees is truly inspiring. But what makes it work as well as it does, and what context and caution should we consider when thinking about it?
    Note: RTP has migrated to a new platform, as noted in the link

• Sue Morrow published a nice piece highlighting eclipse coverage over in the online Newsphotographer Magazine, replete with a nice carousel gallery of images as well as stories about coverage from photographers.
• Ready to do it again? From Space.com:
  “With the April 8 total solar eclipse over, North America has exactly eight years, 11 months and 22 days to wait until its next one. Although total solar eclipses occur in the same location only every 375 years or so, they are not rare. In fact, they happen on our planet about once every 18 months, on average.”
• How did your eclipse experience go? Did it eclipse all expectations? See what I did there? By now, we’ve all probably seen more than our fair share of pictures across social media. Just in case you wanted more, here’s my favorites as I came across them organically.